App Monitoring 101: Collecting the Right Data

Failing to monitor your app as a developer means having no plan if you run into problems. As much as we all wish our apps would run smoothly 100% of the time, problems happen.

It’s easier to respond to a problem quickly if you’ve been monitoring data and system performance. If you have a strong plan for data collection and monitoring, you’ll be better equipped to prevent problems before they occur.

Read on for a guide to collecting the right data through app monitoring so you can rest assured you’re doing the most to protect your app from trouble.

Reasons Why App Monitoring Is Important

There are a lot of reasons to monitor app data, but the main one is to simply be proactive about preventing problems. Working as a developer means overcoming problems on a daily basis, but these problems become even more challenging if you don’t know where to begin. Here’s why you should monitor app data:

Track app improvements over time

Analyze trends to predict errors before they happen

View user feedback and response times

Eliminate bugs that slow down your app

Important App Monitoring Metrics

When it comes to app monitoring, some metrics are more important than others. It’s important to recognize that app metrics are recorded for only a set period of time, and they’re constantly changing. You should regularly check these metrics since they’ll likely change quickly.

Your error rates for your app are self-explanatory, but they’re also the most important. You never want your app users to experience errors, but they do happen. You can monitor your error rates through HTTP Error %, which shows web-related error requests, logged exceptions, and thrown exceptions. It’s common to notice exceptions within your application, and these are key to recognizing performance problems.

Request Rates

Request rates are tied to your application traffic. Your application performance is usually tied to your traffic, which can fluctuate depending on your app success. Understanding these request rates gives insight into your other performance metrics so you can see how your app performs when more users are on the system.

Application Availability

Finally, one of the other biggest metrics to monitor is your availability. Your application is considered available when it is online and functioning properly. This is something you should be checking regularly to ensure everything is working properly. If you notice an error with application availability, you know there’s a problem that needs to be addressed.

Collecting Data

It might seem like there are a lot of metrics to keep track of for one app! While this is true, they’re essential to maintaining a functional app. Collecting data to monitor app performance is easier than ever with useful information on app monitoring available via top resources like Stackify. Developer tools like Retrace exist for this very reason: to make monitoring easier at all stages of app development. Find the right tools for your app to ensure you have no downtime!

Other than Retrace, there is also New Relic APM, which makes it easy to monitor your app performance without confusing setup. Its most powerful feature is the at-a-glance dashboard that shows your overall performance and key metrics, all from one easy-to-read screen.

If you have a big project that needs big monitoring, Foglight is the solution for your app. It monitors large quantities of information across servers, databases, and more. You can even manage your user experience from different perspectives, which gives you the freedom to anticipate even complex problems.

When it comes to choosing the right app monitoring tool, there is no right or wrong choice. You’ll need to analyze your particular needs and the complexity of your individual project to decide on the right monitoring tool.

Conclusion

No developer likes to receive error messages, but all developers know they’re inevitable. Apps can be unpredictable, and the best way to prepare for any challenges is to monitor app performance. Collecting the right metric data can indicate if there’s a potential problem as well as potential solutions for faster performance. Don’t be afraid of learning as much as you can about performance monitoring if you want to have the most successful app possible!

This is a guest post by Steven Phillips:

Steven is the IT consultant with dailycupoftech.com who helps digital businesses reach their full online potential. Steven is passionate about programming and IT consulting. His current focus is helping SaaS businesses create better world for our kids. He frequently writes about the latest advancements in the digital and tech industry.